The Route

Approximatly 3 500 miles through 13 countries and over 2 mountain ranges, 1 of them twice. I aim to raise £3 500 for cancer research. Thats £1 for every mile I plan on covering. Please support me by following the link to my just giving web site.

Blog Archive

On the way to Berne

Ok people I am now in Bern the capital. I have now covered 1948 miles. I have just checked the donations web site and I see that it is at 2230 pounds so I am catching up. If I do not get any more donations in the next week I will of overtaken it, so you guys back there better get those bank cards out if you have not already. I will not move unless I have a target to chase. Think of me as a donkey and you are sitting on my back dangling a carrot in front of me.
Any way this is what has happened to me recently.

Saturday 21st April (Rest day Geneve)
I really like Geneve. I am a little bit gutted that I did not get to see more of the city. In the morning I was questioning these rest days, thinking what is the point because you are never going to see a city in a day (Unless it is St Davids in Pembrokeshire, that will only take 5 minutes). I was thinking do I get to see enough of these places to say that I have really experienced them. I was having a real dilemma. But in the end I had a little walk and saw a few sights.

I then found a little park where I had a game of big chess with this dude,
I then read a bit of my book and fell asleep. So quite a good afternoon after all. I think I have now came to understand that I can not absorb all a city has to offer in a day, it would be to draining running around to every sight. From now on when ever I stop some where, I will go and see a couple of sights then find a park to have a kip in. I think that when my body realises that it is not on the bike it starts to shut down, so I will make a nap a must on every rest day.
Interesting points about Geneve
1) There are more Porsche's and Ferrari's than there are Vauxhall Novas in Cornwall. Must be quite a high GDP.
2) There are lots of pregnant women and also lots of women in crutches. I was wandering if there is some kind of satanic fertility ritual that either ends in pregnancy or serious bodily harm ?
Sunday 22nd April (Day 32)
A good day for sights, I cycled along the north shore of lake Geneve. There are lots of nice settlements on the way.
It was really busy since it was a Sunday, and one thing I found out about Switzerland. Buy all your food on Saturday. Not much was open so when I did manage to find some food it was from an expensive shop. Anyway all day I see the Alps over to the south of me on the other shore. At first they were in a haze,

but as the position of the sun changed and the lake became narrower as I cycled along it they became more visible.

At the end of the day I found a nice camp site to the east of the lake and had a cool view at sunset.

Monday 23rd April (Day 33)
A great day. I had the morning off to go and see Chateau de Chillon.
I got up earl so as to get there for opening. A wise move because as I had just about finished there it started to get really busy with lots of Americans on tour groups. Any way here is the Chateau's dungeon,
cool rooms with good views over the lake,

and me when I left.
The afternoon was spent cycling over a mountain pass of 1450m. The climb was not as bad a thought it would be considering I started at less than 400m high. It only took me 3 hours to cycle the 20km and climb over 1000m. There was a good view of the valley I was going up,

which has some cool buildings on the way.
There were lots of pockets of snow left at and near the top of the pass. I found that surprising considering how hot it was up there and has been. But that is all to do with albedoes, aspect and direct hours of sunlight.
Also I must of been quite dehydrated because all I could manage was SD.
Any way I found these little beauties high up near the snow,
and if any one is a Band of Brothers fan you will understand the next photo.
So that is probably only Ben and Chopper. I hope it is one of them otherwise I probably look like a bit of a fool.

Tuesday 24th April (Day 34)

Quite a relaxed day. I had a lay in camping terms, I got up at 8:40 when I was starting to be cooked in my tent by the sun. All I had to do was cycle 70km to Bern and it was relatively flat so no major problems. I got hear at 3pm then found a hostel. I have booked in for two nights so I can have a rest day and explore the city. Bern is possibly in a day, the centre is about twice the size of a town. So I will explore in the morning and chill in the afternoon in some park.
That is about all people so I hope all is well.

Cheers.